Saturday, March 15, 2014

Piste!

What a truly gorgeous day for snowboarding! I haven't seen a cloud all day unless you're counting the slight fog I watched lift from the valley early this morning from the 2550m peak. Last week's snow really set a good base too, so although conditions are getting a little slushy in the sun I think it's a worthwhile tradeoff. Only thing is the snow is getting sticky so I've got to keep my speed up to get to this next lift but this shady, coniferous tree lined path seems immune thus far. Alright, tuck.. inside line.. around this corner.. Wait, what's that in the shade? It looks dirty. Oh no, it is dirt - ah, little late for avoidance so I'll just blast through it. Nope - it's stones, glad this isn't my board. Damn, it's pure rocks. I'm on it now - not much I can do but follow my momentum which is already 3 m downhill. And.. my board has literally ground to a stop so I'm flying those few metres face first. Ow! That's my upper three layers riding up and lower four layers sliding down and I'm still skidding.
"£@¢€!" I'm surprised that exclamation of frustration didn't trigger an avalanche.
Ugh, there's mud everywhere - pants, face, jacket, other jacket, drawers, back, glasses, mitts, toque - everywhere! I'm going to be picking gravel out of my hip for hours.
How do these skiers know to go around it? And how are they resisting the urge to laugh at the obvious wreck that I am?


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